Rural-Urban Wage Differentials,Unemployment, and Efficiency Wages: An Open Economy Policy Analysis

This paper analyzes the desirability of various policies designed to counteract the distorting nature of an equilibrium rural-urban wage differential in a small, open, two-sector economy with urban unemployment. A dual labor market model with an efficiency wage in the urban sector and urban unemployment is analyzed for the distributional and national output effects of an urban wage subsidy, an urban production subsidy, and a tariff on the urban good. While a small subsidy or tariff raises the value of national output, redistribution effects may limit the viability of intervention. However, subsidies can also be Pareto improving policies.     

Healthcare utilization and costs in patients with tuberous sclerosiscomplex-related renal angiomyolipoma

Objective: To quantify healthcare utilization and costs in patients with tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and renal angiomyolipoma (AML) in a matched cohort of patients without TSC or AML.

Methods: Administrative data from the MarketScan Research Databases were used to select patients with TSC and renal AML during January 1, 2000–March 31, 2013 from the Commercial database and January 1, 2000–June 30, 2012 from the Medicaid database. Patients were required to have at least 30 days of follow-up from initiation into the study, and were followed until inpatient death, end of insurance coverage, or the end of study. Age, calendar year, and payer-matched controls that had no TSC and no AML were selected. All-cause annualized healthcare utilization and costs were calculated by service category.

Results: A total of 218 patients under 18 years and 377 patients 18 years and older with TSC-renal AML were selected from the Commercial database, and matched to 654 and 1,131 controls, respectively. Thirty-eight patients under 18 years and 110 patients 18 years or older with TSC-renal AML were selected from the Medicaid database, and matched to 54 and 212 controls, respectively. Within the Commercial cohort, and across both age groups, TSC-renal AML patients utilized more healthcare services than their matched controls. Within the Medicaid cohort, in both age groups, utilization was higher in TSC-renal AML patients vs control patients for inpatient admissions, emergency room visits, physician office visits, and hospital-based outpatient visits. Across age groups and in both the Commercial and Medicaid cohorts, the annual average total costs were significantly higher in TSC-renal AML patients compared to control patients (p?Conclusions: Compared to controls, TSC-renal AML patients incurred substantially higher annual healthcare utilization and costs.     

What Keeps Managers Away from a Losing Course of Action? Go/Stop Decisions in New Product Development

The purpose of this experimental study is to test whether specific approaches can reduce escalation of commitment—namely, decision‐makers' tendency to persist with an innovation project despite negative feedback that the initial investment has not reached its goals. This study focuses on the decision process for 137 research and development managers who must decide whether to abandon previously chosen courses of action or to continue in the face of probable and increasing losses in a stage‐gate system. The results show that visual decision aids and consultant advice reduce managers' decisions to continue funding a losing course of action. The results also show that using both approaches simultaneously has the strongest effect. Finally, the study reveals that the escalation of commitment issue can be reduced more effectively before an innovation project is commercialized while using both approaches.     

Joining Forces or Going It Alone? On the Interplay among External Collaboration Partner Types,Interfirm Governance Modes,and Internal R&D

This paper adds to the emerging literature stream advocating a contingency view on open innovation. Drawing on the relational view of the firm, this study sheds light on the complex interplay among collaboration partner types (market‐ and science‐focused innovation partners), governance modes (informal, self‐enforcing and formal, contractual collaboration governance), and internal research and development(R&D). More specifically, it is proposed that the use of governance modes tailored to both the characteristics of each innovation partner type and the specific innovation objectives pursued by the focal firm (incremental and radical new product development) can increase the payoff from innovation collaboration. Moreover, appropriate collaboration governance is expected to reduce the focal firm's vulnerability to possible negative side effects often assumed to be associated with the simultaneous pursuit of external collaboration and internal R&D, among which most notably the not‐invented‐here (NIH) syndrome. Cross‐industry evidence from 2502 German firms underlines the critical role of collaboration governance—a contingency factor that is at the heart of the relational view, yet has remained surprisingly absent from the open innovation debate so far.     

The impact of face-to-face street fundraising on organizational reputation

Although many stakeholders perceive face-to-face street fundraising as unpleasant, nonprofit managers encourage it as a way to attract donors. To understand the long-term effects of this fundraising method, we used a mixed-methods experimental design to investigate how face-to-face street fundraising affects organizational reputation and stakeholder support intentions in comparison with letter fundraising. The findings reveal that face-to-face street fundraising has a significant negative influence on the stakeholders' perceptions of an organization. Further, qualitative data show that the negative perception originates primarily from perceived pressure, distrust, and obtrusion, which are triggered by face-to-face street fundraising. Our study thus reveals long-term reputational consequences that nonprofit organizations should consider before deciding on fundraising methods.     

Estimating the causal effect of a time-varying treatment on time-to-event using structural nested failure time models

In this paper we review an approach to estimating the causal effect of a time-varying treatment on time to some event of interest. This approach is designed for a situation where the treatment may have been repeatedly adapted to patient characteristics, which themselves may also be time-dependent. In this situation the effect of the treatment cannot simply be estimated by conditioning on the patient characteristics, as these may themselves be indicators of the treatment effect. This so-called time-dependent confounding is typical in observational studies. We discuss a new class of failure time models, structural nested failure time models, which can be used to estimate the causal effect of a time-varying treatment, and present methods for estimating and testing the parameters of these models.     

Book reviews

Routledge Series in Analytical Management Series Editor: D.C. Wilson London and New York, Routledge.

Strategues fir Growth; Maturuity, Recovery and Internationalisation Peter McKiernan London and New York, Routledge, 1992, £35.00. (hbk), ISBN 0-415-07383-9.

Technology and Organisation: Power, Meaning and Design Harry Scarborough & F. Martin Corbett London and New York, Routledge, 1992, £35.000 (hbk), ISBN 0-415-07384-7.

A Strategy of Change; Concepts and Controversies in the Management of Change D. C. Wilson London and New York, Routledge, 1992, £10.99 (pbk), ISBN 0-415-09773-8.

Human Resource Strategies for International Growth Chris Hendry London and New York, Routledge, 1994, £35.00. (hbk), ISBN 0-415-09773-8.

What is Strategy and Does it Matter? Richard Whittington London and New York, Routledge, 1993, £35.00. (hbk), ISBN 0-415-07385-5.

Technological Collaboration in Industry Mark Dodgson London, Routledge, 1993, £40.00 (hbk), ISBN 0-415-08230-7.

Corporate Vision and Rapid Technological Change Peter Swann & Jas Gill London, Routledge, 1993, £37.50 (hbk), ISBN 0-415-09135-7.

Internal Merkets: Bringing the Power of Free Enterprise Inside your Organisation W.E. Halad, A. Germanmayeh and J. Pourdenhad (eds) New York, Wiley, 1993, 301 pp., US$ 34.95.

Strategic Management: A Methodological Approach, 4th edition A.J. Rowe, R.O. Mason, K.E. Dicker, R.B. Mann & R.J. Mocler New York, Addison-Wesley, 1994, ISBN 0-201-58638-X.

The Management of Scale (Big Organizations, Big Decisions, Big Mistakes) David Collingridge London, Routledge, 1992, £35.00 (hbk), £12.99 (pbk), ISBN 0-415-07856-3.

The Intelligent Enterprise James B. Quinn New York, Free Press, 1992, ISBN 0-02-925615-1.